Without making this post huge by trying to put everything I’ve missed from the last few months into one long rambling essay (not much happened but I had such a good break from life online and it was exactly what I needed), I simply want to briefly close up 2015, and introduce you to my word for 2016.

Turns out the most popular moments of this year on Instagram contained either food, cats or Christmas (aka my 3 favourite things)

2015 was a strange year. It started with the best and worst days, where we came home with a fluffy feline called Merlin, and then were burgled a day later. There were some pretty small and subtle changes, like me spending a day without my phone and realizing that I need to step back a bit from social media, or walking up One Tree Hill and realizing that nothing is too hard to try. It also had a pretty big moment where I handed in my resignation for a job that I’ve loved (but have grown out of) so that next year I can try something new which has been my dream job since I was about 5.

Overall the main things I learnt this year was how hard it is to be true to myself, but also how damn important that is. I learnt that I’m a better person when I am honest with myself and with others, and how I don’t need to be ashamed of my responsible/boring/nanna side (in fact I can be proud of how good I am at adulting when I do it well) but that I can also aim to challenge myself with new things and attitudes around being more flexible and spontaneous.

With that being my main little learning from 2015, my word going into 2016 is Strength. This whole one word instead of ten billion goals suits me well, because as much as I love lists I’m super talented at writing all my goals down and literally never looking at them again. So I loved the idea of having a little mantra for myself to take into 2016 and whatever that may bring.

Strength:

• Strength in my body and the way I want it to be able to physically cope with more
• Strength in my mind and how it responds to things that happen in a healthy and helpful way
• Strength in evaluating and discussing opinions with those who help me learn to do this better
• Strength in my abilities to take on new challenges and push my old boundaries each day
• Strength in finding the things that make me happy and allocating my time and energy accordingly
• Strength in my spirit and in the way I allow myself to grow and be myself

I could go on but I guess you get the idea. It feels a bit awkward at the moment but I think that’s actually a sign that this is something I need to be more mindful of. Strength would never be a word I would associate with myself, and yet its a quality I admire in others and want to try and have create more of.

Something that helps is being surrounded by strong people who make me want to up my game and be more like them, so thanks to all the incredible humans I am lucky enough to be around.

tl;dr 2015 was cool but confusing, and in 2016 I want to give myself permission to be stronger

Do you have a word for 2016? Please share if you do!